Green has many shades

I have always recycled my cans, paper and plastic. Even back in the early days when my dad, ever the skeptic, said that the garbage men just added it to the regular garbage, that there was no recycling facility!


I admit that I have dug something out of the garbage that another family member has thrown away because they were too lazy to walk out to the garage and put it in the bin. I also let these family members know that I don't like digging through the garbage and in the future either get off your lazy butt and walk it out to the garage or get a whole lot better at hiding it in the can, because I'm on to you.

Last year I decided to get a little more serious about my use of plastic and started making my own laundry soap.

Laundry Soap

Hot water
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/3 bar Soap (grated)


In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat.
In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well.
Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel).


It's been 5 months now, and for the most part, it's working quite well. It doesn't make suds and that was the hard part to get used to, because to me (and most people) suds means clean. I also found that it isn't quite cutting the dirt on my husbands work shirt collars. So I told him to start washing his neck better :) and then I found a recipe for a pre-treater/stain remover, so now we're good to go. I feel a little bit better that I am not putting any more of those big plastic soap containers in the land fills, plus the cost savings is a bonus, too.

Stain Remover/Pre-Treater

1 part rubbing alcohol
2 parts water

Combine the ingredients and spray on stains. Let the solution soak for a few minutes and then launder as usual.

I've also started making my own shower cleaner and window cleaner. I hate scrubbing the shower and absolutely loved it when they invented the stuff you spray after every shower. I never had to scrub again! I was in heaven! But I was also buying a bottle every other week and the cost and all that plastic, finally caught up with me.

And then last summer I got into composting. Because we have a septic tank and a garbage disposal, which some say is a no-no, I got to thinking, why am I not composting all the food scraps so I have some lovely compost for my garden?




I really tried to be diligent about it, every correct food scrap that should have gone into it, went into it, and I rolled it as I was instructed. After the whole summer I ended up with about a 5 gallon bucket of compost. My husband wasn't too impressed with that puny amount of compost. But I'm thinking I wasn't doing something right. I didn't have enough carbon. Or was it nitrogen? As you can see, I need to get serious about this and do some reading about it.

When good ideas go horribly wrong.....

One of my favorite food blogs is Bakerella.

I like to dream that I have one iota of her talent at baking and photography. She makes the most scrumptious and fantastic things, tells you how to make them, all the while making it sound so easy, with phenomenal pictures.

Well, one day I thought I would give it a try.

Apparently, some things are better left to the professionals.

I must be missing the baking chromosome or something because my reindeer pops certainly didn't turn out like hers. My family was very kind and said they were cute, but I think they were just being kind to me. And all the time they were eating them, I'm sure they were snickering behind my back!

I take great comfort in the fact that no young children, ran screaming from the room in terror.

Pass the plate

For Christmas, the girls at work gave me this fabulous plate.





If you haven't seen this before or don't know how this works, let me share this excerpt from the Kitchenaid website.





"Turn your passion for cooking into a passion for helping the fight against breast cancer. Join Pass the Plate, a new element of the Cook for the Cure® program that raises funds and inspires others to support the breast cancer movement.Purchase a specially marked plate, created by KitchenAid and Villeroy & Boch, and register it online. Make one of your favorite recipes, put it on the plate, pass it to a friend, and you’re on your way to making an impact.KitchenAid will donate $5 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® every time a plate is passed and registered. Pass the Plate in honor of someone special—or just to help make a difference."



http://kitchenaidoffer.com/passtheplate/



On Christmas, I gave "my plate" to my sister who had a double mastectomy last spring. Since you have to register the plate, you can also track where the plate has been. I just checked and 'my plate' has been passed 8 times since Christmas! Woohoo! I already got another plate to pass around, I think I just might have to get a couple more. What great gifts they would make.



If you have time, check out the KitchenAid web site and maybe order one for yourself.

More Etsy

Still working on the upcoming sale in my shop.

This cold weather seems to have zapped my desire to sew. You'd think the cold weather would be a great excuse to sit at the sewing machine for hours, but apparently I don't think like most people. As for this cold weather, it's supposed to get to minus 10 tonight, without the windchill. I know it's Michigan and it's January, but even this is a little too much cold and snow for me.

Today was my early day at work and instead of coming straight home, I went to the local yarn store because I think I need to knit this scarf.

I don't like my scarf flapping around in the wind and thought this might be something I'd actually finish. We'll see.......

I finished up a few new pouches for the shop over the weekend and will be listing them tonight. I wish I could talk my husband into taking the pictures and doing the listings, all the stuff I find tedious, but he just won't jump at it, no matter how fun I make it sound.

Etsy goodies

I've been sewing like crazy the last couple of days, I need to get more thing into my Etsy shop. I have over 90 items for sale, but I think I need more.

I'm having a sale that starts on January 15th and I'd sure like it if there was a huge variety to choose from.

It's tough sometimes, choosing which fabric to make my things from. If I pick something that I really like and get all excited over it and then it sits in the shop for months, I begin to wonder what the heck is wrong with MY taste? But then someone comes along and buys it and I feel better! Taste is so subjective and it's difficult to predict what someone else likes, so it's just easier to make what I like and hope there are more than oddball me out there liking this stuff. It's also tough when someone says they want something in blues and browns and you send them a picture of all your blues and browns that you have on hand, to let them pick and emails fly back and forth and in the end they pick a pink and green combo! Go figure, but I guess that's what makes the world go round!

I also think I need to come up with something other than pouches, although they sell nicely, I would like to try my hand at something else. I tried a boxed pouch the other day and it turned out just huge! I mean it's big enough that you could put all your makeup, shampoo, etc., plus your hairdryer in it! Maybe even a small sized dog, too! Ok, so that's probably an exaggeration, but it's more over sized than I intended. The size adjustments are easy enough to fix, but this one is just going to go into the 'not quite right' box and I'll find someone to give it to, someday.

Etsy is loaded with talented artists and I often think I'd like to try my hand at some other crafts but I know I don't have the talent to produce items like this, and this and this. But it inspires me to work harder, that's for sure!

Kenny

I am a huge Kenny Rogers fan. Not the fake one that plays baseball, but the REAL one. Some would say I am a stalker, I prefer the term devoted fan. I have been to many of his concerts and I'm always checking out his website to see if there are any concerts within driving distance. So last night I was on his new website and discovered that he will be in Sault Ste. Marie in February. I only like to go to a concert if I can sit withing the first 8 rows. Any farther back and I don't consider it a good seat. Apparently, I am a seat snob. So I check the site for tickets, go through the word verification process that you have to do when checking on tickets and the price pops up. $398.00! I think, well maybe that's the price for all the tickets they have left or maybe that's for a whole section. But nooooo! It's for a single ticket.

Now, I like Kenny more than the average person. I have been known to drive 6-8 hours one way to see him, I've planned my Vegas vacation to coincide with his concert there, I've driven through a snow storm and I've even worn a goofy shirt to his concert, that just happened to be on my 50th birthday.

But my adoration has a price tag and $398.00 is way over that!

Just out of curiosity, I checked what the price of the tickets are going for in Biloxi in January. $45. Now that's more like it. I could probably get round trip airfare to Biloxi and the concert ticket, cheaper than the Sault Ste Marie concert ticket.

So, I guess Kenny won't be seeing me this year at any of his concerts......... sigh......

I guess I'll just stay home and sew for Etsy.

The making of the Bagels

When my husband went to his sisters house last week, she was baking bagels and sent him home with a couple of them.

I have never had a homemade bagel and was really quite amazed at the texture. So soft and chewy and really not like a store bought bagel, of which I am not really fond of.

So last night we went to her house and she gave me a bagel lesson and then allowed me to eat the fruits of our labors!

Oh, man, it was heaven as they were still warm! I will probably never be allowed to buy bagels again as my husband was equally taken with them.

And really, they're not hard to make. Even though we (or rather she) did all the kneading by hand, I would think you could use your bread machine to do the work, if you were so inclined.

Hey, I should check out my bread machine book, as there is probably a recipe in there and I just never noticed. Hmmm, wonder where that book is?

A wannabe knitter.

When I was in grade school, my mother taught my sisters and me to knit and purl and we would spend hours 'knitting scarves'. I don't ever remember finishing anything, mostly remember knitting the 'scarf' until we ran out of yarn and then ripping it out and starting over. That yarn was well used and looked it!

In my early 20's, I suddenly decided I was a real knitter. I bought yarn and books and proceeded to knit 'things', mostly kids mittens and for some unknown reason, couch pillows. (I shudder when I think of these and that my mother in law at that time, kept her handmade set on her couch for years.)

My greatest accomplishment was a knit jumper for my daughter who was 2 at the time. It was royal blue with red and white stripes along the top and the hem and I was quite proud of my accomplishment. I don't think she wore it too much, probably out grew it before she had much opportunity to wear it, but I still remember the feeling of completing it. Since then I have dabbled in knitting, mostly for something to do while watching TV, and rarely do I finish anything. Last year I decided I was a 'knitter' again, and started knitting socks. I probably ripped them out 7 times before I finally got them right. They were not the prettiest things, but I gave them to my DIL last Christmas, but forgot to tell her that they were wool, and I believe they shrunk! Since then I have purchased more needles, more books and more yarn with the confidence of an accomplished knitter. The all look really nice sitting in my yarn basket and anyone seeing that overflowing basket would believe that I am a knitter. I don't have the heart to tell them the only thing I really knit anymore is dishcloths. Basic knit and purl and easy to finish. But that doesn't stop me from admiring sites like this one.

Meanwhile I have been sewing more things for Etsy. Unlike the pretend knitting that I do, sewing I know for sure. I probably sew 2-4 hours every day and would do more if I didn't have to go to my real job.

The Calm after the Storm

I can no longer put it off, the remaining decorations just have to come down. Every room is undecorated except the living room, and the Christmas tree. Why is decorating so much fun but "undecorating" so much like work? And if I take the tree down, then I have to move the putting green that has taken up residence in my living room. How would Tiger get his practicing in? Funny thing about this putting green. My Tiger Woods can sink 15 out of 15 every time, and proudly so. I told him that he will rock the next time he plays a course that has a 10 foot astro turfed plastic incline. The look he gave me clearly told me that I don't understand golf.I'd rather be sewing and getting things ready for the upcoming sale in my Etsy shop, but someone has to put the Christmas stuff away and apparently that someone is me.

Maybe this is the year I get rid of some of the decorations that I no longer use. Why would anyone need 16 Rubbermaid tubs of decorations? (Probably the same person who has 7 tubs of 4th of July decorations!)

One year, I decided to 'thin' out the stash and gave my kids some of their ornaments from their childhood. Yeah, that amounted to 2 little shoe boxes and still left me with 16 tubs. So as I sit here writing this, I am motivated to pare down, trim back and eliminate the unwanted and unused. I'll let you know how that goes. Stop laughing.